Announcing the Business Relationship Management Institute!


BRMII’m excited to announce that I’ve joined forces with a couple of colleagues to begin a new venture – The Business Relationship Management Institute (BRMI). BRMI is a not-for-profit association for Business Relationship Management Professionals, providing professional training and certification, and facilitating exchange of knowledge and leading practices. My role as Principal with The Merlyn Group, my consulting firm and provider of the Symcordia® Knowledge Management and Collaboration platform, and my role as co-founder of Formicio in Europe will continue (yes, I’ve been a busy lad in my semi-retirement!)

Empowering the Emerging Business Relationship Management Role

Regular readers will be aware that Business Relationship Management (BRM) has been a recurring topic in this blog. It’s a topic I’ve been passionate about since the early 1990′s when a 3-year, longitudinal multi-company research study I was leading at Ernst & Young’s Center for Business Innovation surfaced the emerging BRM role as a key business-IT alignment mechanism. Those early beginnings culminate (or, at least kick off a new chapter) in the formation of the BRMI this week. Founded as a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit corporation, this represents an opportunity to connect even more deeply with the BRM community, and, corny as it may sound, ‘give back’ to that community and to the IT profession in the twilight years of my career.

How Did the Business Relationship Management Institute Come About?

It is said that the best stories narrate themselves. Founding Business Relationship Management Institute is just such a story. The three BRMI co-founders embarked on the journey to establish the Institute, years before we met each other.

I have been involved in the BRM profession since 1995, when I collaborated with professors from Oxford and Cranfield Universities in the United Kingdom and Nanyang University in Singapore to develop and teach a BRM program for a global oil company. I’ve continued to develop and lead training and development programs for BRMs and consult extensively on this subject via The Merlyn Group.

In 2010, Aaron Barnes, a senior BRM, who built and was leading a successful team of BRMs at a major big box retailer, felt the need for a forum for professional BRMs to share knowledge and develop their competencies. In January, 2011, Aaron formed the Professional Business Relationship Managers (PBRM) group on LinkedIn thus establishing a foundation for what would eventually evolve into the first official BRMI global community.

In late 2011, just as Aaron invited me to co-moderate the rapidly growing LinkedIn group, Dr. Aleksandr Zhuk, an expert technologist, professor, with years of experience in teaching online, and a fellow member of PBRM LinkedIn group, also saw the desperate need for a widely available BRM training and certification. Connecting the dots, Aleksandr conceived of a global professional organization to provide training, certification and serve all other needs of the rapidly growing BRM community. Business Relationship Management Institute was born.

In January 2013, Aaron invited Aleksandr to join us as co-moderator of PBRM group and all three of us met, for the first time, to exchange ideas on how to best serve the BRM community. As soon as Aleksandr brought up the idea of Business Relationship Management Institute, we recognized that each of us has already been working toward making it real. The time has come to join our forces to realize our shared vision for BRMI—a not-for-profit organization dedicated to serving the needs and protecting the interests of the global BRM community.

BRMI Logo

BRMI tri-petal, is a registered trademark of Business Relationship Management Institute.  The tri-petal symbolizes a well-balanced unity among the business relationship manager, the service provider, and the business partner.

Our Position on the BRM Role

In 2011, ITIL® and ISO/IEC 20000 standard for IT Service Management formalized the existence of a dedicated Business Relationship Manager (BRM) role and corresponding process, recognizing the need for BRM as a new best practice and IT Service Management standard requirement. According to ITIL®:

The role of the business relationship manager (BRM) was established to execute certain customer-facing activities in various processes, such as service level management. However, as the role matured it became clear that there was a discernible process to support the role…The purpose of the business relationship management process is two-fold:

  • Establish and maintain a business relationship between the service provider and the customer based on understanding the customer and their business needs.
  • Identify customer needs and ensure that the service provider is also able to meet these needs as business needs change over time and between circumstances.

ISO/IEC 20000 standard for IT Service Management adds that:

For each customer, the service provider shall have a designated individual [BRM] who is responsible for managing the customer relationship and customer satisfaction.”2 According to ISO/IEC 20000-2:2012, to be effective, “The BRM process should ensure that mechanisms are established to manage the relationship between the service provider and customer(s).”

At BRMI, we fully recognize the importance of structured well-tuned processes and agree with ITIL® definition of the two key functions fulfilled by the BRM. We also believe that ISO/IEC 20000 standard’s requirement for having a dedicated BRM for each business customer provides a solid guideline for establishing a well-balanced effective relationship between a business customer and a service provider with the BRM acting as advocate for the customer.

Yet, many years of our collective experience in the field also suggest that effective business relationship management is as much, if not more, about strategic-level leadership as it is about effective processes. Being a successful BRM means much more than periodically interfacing with business stakeholders and IT process owners by means of a process—regardless of how well-tuned this process might be.  An effective business relationship manager is, by definition, a master of building working strategic-level relationships, one who possesses all the interpersonal and business skills this entails.  Effective BRMs carry real strategic weight in their organizations. Therefore, the BRMs who deliver maximum business value hold senior management positions placed in well-balanced alignment with senior business and IT executives.

At BRMI, we also believe that, like anything else in the age of turbulent changes, the BRM role is not static—it evolves. Therefore, the BRM role is best approached through a maturity perspective—both the maturity of business demand for IT services and products, with regard to its ability to turn IT investments into realized business value, and the maturity of IT service provider and its ability to fulfill evolving business needs. Maturity of business demand and IT supply affect the BRM role and its ability to deliver results.

We will be exploring these viewpoints, and many other aspects of the BRM role through the BRMI blog. We’ll also develop an evolving “blog roll” of sites we believe should be in every BRMs reading list. We hope you will all join with us on the BRMI site in this global conversation about the emerging and evolving role of the Business Relationship Manager!

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Why Business Relationship Manager Success Hangs On So Many Variables! (Part 2 of 2)


bigstock_Frustration_1067467-smallThis is the 2nd in a 2-part series on the barriers to Business Relationship Manager success.  In Part 1, I discussed my theories as to why the Business Relationship Manager Role is Gaining Traction.  I also discussed 3 common traps that can derail BRM success:

  • The Service Management Glitch.
  • The Solution Delivery Gulch.
  • The Maintenance and Break-Fix Gotcha! 

In this post, I want to cover the more subtle traps BRMs can be prey to.

The Subtler Sources of BRM Failure

  • Will the real master please stand up!  The general rule is that the BRM represents the business to IT and IT to the business.  It’s a ‘bridging’ role.  Sounds good, makes sense. But, when push comes to shove – which it will sooner or later – where does the BRMs allegiance really stand?  Not an insurmountable challenge, but one that will test even the strongest of relationship skills and nerves.
  • Which Business Unit really rules?  Typically, there are several, sometimes dozens and occasionally a hundred or so BRMs each representing some business unit or process or geography – or even a mix of these.  So the BRM is not only balancing business and IT issues, they are collectively balancing issues among and across business units, capabilities and processes.  In theory, business-IT governance as a tool of a robust enterprise strategy and architecture does the ‘heavy lifting’ in terms of balancing these forces.  In practice, however, there is the ever-present company politics and the inevitable forces of self-interest, survival and ‘noisy wheels’. The BRMs ability to surface these disconnects and manage the executive sponsors regarding clarity of enterprise strategy becomes key.  This role may best be executed by the CIO, who is, in effect, the “Enterprise BRM.”
  • So, you want me to get involved in the labor union negotiations?  Being a successful BRM tends to bring a healthy (or unhealthy?) dose of “be careful what you wish for!”  They are seen as a valued member of the business leadership team (as well as a valued member of the IT leadership team). Sooner or later, they will be expected to get involved in things way outside their scope or domain of expertise.  On the one hand, it’s a sign that they’ve arrived.  On the other hand, arriving provides many opportunities to set out on plenty of other journeys – and not all of them will make sense.  Just saying “no” wears thin quickly – and seats at the strategy table can be lost much more quickly than they can be earned!  So picking and choosing opportunities to participate, and having a graceful and constructive way of deflecting those requests that really don’t make sense, becomes a new core competence for the successful BRM to sustain that success.
  • You’ve ‘gone native!’  At some point the risk surfaces that you are disenfranchising the rest of the IT organization from the business, rendering them “commodities.”  This is the corollary to the “BRM as the Single Point of Contact for IT” mantra, which is common but ultimately, inaccurate and dangerous.  The BRM can “own” the key business relationships, but that does not require them to be the single point of contact.  I’ll expand on this point in a future post.

What have you seen as potential ways BRMs get derailed?  What have you been able to do to avoid or recover from these?

Image courtesy of denise o’berry

Why Business Relationship Manager Success Hangs On So Many Variables! (Part 1 of 2)


breaking-barriers-300x225My regular readers (yes, both of them – my brother and my cat) will have noticed that I’ve been posting more about the Business Relationship Manager role lately.  It seems that there’s a surge (resurgence?) of interest in this crucial and challenging role.  I’ve been wondering why this is, and thinking about the reasons why the role is so challenging?

Why the Business Relationship Manager Role is Gaining Traction

I have several theories about the increasing interest in the Business Relationship Manager (BRM) role:

  1. BRM as a product of Service Management standards.  IT Service Management standards (e.g., ITIL® and ISO/IEC 20000) formalized the dedicated BRM role as a new best practice and IT Service Management standard requirement. As I’ve posted before, this is a mixed blessing – one the one hand it is creating awareness and legitimization for the BRM – that is good.  One the other hand, it positions the BRM rather tactically – a champion for IT service management rather than a strategic channel for creating business value from IT.  Yes, I acknowledge that IT Service Management is an important enabler of IT business value, but it does not reach the highest points in the value chain. If that’s all the BRM aspires to (or is seen as) then the value of the BRM will be constrained, and sooner or later, they will be seen as ‘overhead.’  The analogy that comes to mind is general education – yes, K through 12 provides a critical and foundational educational experience, but it won’t in of itself ensure a career path beyond minimum wage.  For that, you need either higher education in some specialty that is in demand, special talents, or an amazing amount of luck!
  2. BRM as the Silver Bullet!  After years of attempts by CIOs to get their business partners to love and value the IT function, the deployment of the BRM role perhaps might be the missing bullet!  At the very least, it’s the next intervention to try – what harm can it do?
  3. The Emerging BRM Success.  Some BRMs are emerging naturally (even without that formal title or role.)  A typical scenario is that the CIO begins to notice that the relationship with supply chain, for example, has improved by leaps and bounds over the last couple of years.  Thinking about the reasons behind this, the CIO recognizes that general improvements in IT infrastructure services have helped – but these have also helped the other business functions and processes, so that alone does not explain the new found happy relationship.  She also recognizes that the ERP deployment, painful as it was, is now through the worst, and is starting to deliver on its supply chain improvement promises.  So this is a factor, but the ERP contributed to other key business processes, and while it has helped lift the relationships with the executives responsible for those processes, they still aren’t showering IT with accolades!  Then there’s the frequent positive messages the CIO keeps seeing and hearing about Samantha, the IT executive that led the supply chain ERP implementation, and seems to spend a lot of time with the supply chain business teams.  The CIO knows they love Samantha, who’s clearly seen as a champion for them, and as the ‘go to’ person for things related to (and sometimes unrelated) to supply chain IT.  The CIO realizes that Samantha is managing the IT-supply chain relationships.  “Bingo,” thinks the CIO.  “Samantha is a ‘business relationship manager’ and maybe I need to formalize that role and create more of them!”

So, What Can Derail the BRMs Success?

Just about everything!  First, it’s important to realize that BRM is often in a role that wields significant influence, but actually has no authority over any of the many individuals and groups necessary for the BRMs efforts to pay off.  For example:

  • The Service Management Glitch.  If basic IT services (email, helpdesk, mobile support) are less than excellent, the BRMs business partner is going to complain. And here begins the vicious cycle – the BRM intervenes, uses her relationships and relationship skills to escalate the problem and pulls off a minor miracle.  Two bad things follow – first, the problem was solved though heroics – the heroes are celebrated and the idea that heroes keep the lights on and the trains running on time (metaphorically speaking!) gets reinforced.  Second, the business partner begins to see the BRM as the go-to person for IT operational problems.  When that BRM wonders why she was not invited to the metaphorical ‘strategy table’, the reason is clear – why would anyone invite the janitor to help formulate strategy?  (With all due respect to the hard working and effective janitors out there!)
  • The Solution Delivery Gulch.  If solutions delivery does not perform with excellence – somehow meeting never-ending business demand, delivering solutions that work the first time, on time, within budget, preferably in less than a month from initial request – then anything the BRM does to stimulate and surface demand is going to backfire.
  • The Maintenance and Break-Fix Gotcha!  If solutions maintenance is not responsive, proactive and prescient, and business process are interrupted, the BRM is going to get dragged into the fray – and again lose their license to be strategic.

The Subtler Sources of BRM Failure

In many respects the bullet points above are obvious – though that does not make them any less real or easy to deal with.  But there are some more subtle unintended consequences the BRM faces, and I’ll cover these in Part 2 in this 2-part series.

Image courtesy of Ruthida Namubiru.com

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Van Halen, M&M’s and Operational Excellence – What a Rock ‘n’ Roll Band Knows About Business Performance!


imagesRegular readers will know that my career as a management consultant is really just a hobby.  My true passion in life is rock ‘n’ roll!  (OK, maybe that’s somewhat reversed, but bear with me!)

One of the things I love about the rock music scene is the legends – some apocryphal, some based on fact – that surround many rock stars.  One that’s been around a while is the “Brown M&M’s” legend associated with early Van Halen.  So I was delighted to come across a piece in Fast Company by Chip and Dan Heath that dug under the surface of this urban rock legend.

A Touring Rock Band Demands Operational Excellence!

Van Halen, like many rock bands, toured extensively and used a tremendous amount of heavy equipment.  As an aside, I was amused to see a video clip of the Beatles first trip to the US and notice them using Vox AC 30 amplifiers – that were not even running through a public address system!  For the uninitiated, these were early British amplifiers that kicked out a rather measly 30 watts of audio power – each one typically driving a pair of 12 inch loudspeaker.  By contrast, a band like Van Halen in more modern times would use multiple 100 watt amplifiers driving banks of loudspeakers, then running through a public address system kicking out thousands of watts driving huge walls of loudspeakers, hanging from the ceilings!

All this gear, together with stage settings, special lighting and effects would need a convoy of 18-wheel tractor trailers to haul from gig to gig.  All this equipment meant high technical complexity, demanding a detailed and complex contract with venues and specialist resources.

No Brown M&M’s!

One of the strange articles Van Halen buried in the middle of the contract read,

There will be no brown M&Ms in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation.”

When front man (and operational excellence obsessive) David Lee Roth would arrive at a new venue, he’d go backstage to check the M&M bowl. If he saw a brown M&M, he’d know this was a visible indicator that the stage hands and venue specialists were not paying attention to the contract details, and there would be a good chance that other operational errors had been made.  This would trigger a line check of the entire production.

What’s Your Equivalent to the Brown M&M’s?

David Lee Roth had come up with a simple indicator to predict the quality of the stage set up for any venue and show.  It looked trivial and something you might expect from a rock ‘diva’.  But in practice, it was a highly effective way to assure quality.  And you can bet that the word quickly spread from gig to gig – so the crews were on their toes, paying attention to all the contract details!

Do you have any indicators that provide assurance of the quality of your operations?

 

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Technology Gone Nuts – The Insanity of a Hotel Alarm Clock!


alarm-clock-ringingI was about to write tomorrow’s blog post but decided to set my hotel alarm clock first.  I’d checked in earlier, and needed to be up early for a client workshop tomorrow.  The experience led me to a very different post – one written by frustration at the stupidity of certain technologists!

Setting a Hotel Alarm

This should be trivially simple to anyone – especially to an IT consultant, right?  For context, I’m staying in a global hotel chain – not a premium brand, but a decent, well-regarded business travel hotel.

Before I tried setting the alarm, I needed to get the time set correctly – it was an hour and fourteen minutes fast! How to do this?  There were no buttons to set the time!  In fact, screen printed on the front of the alarm/radio was a 6-step process – just to set the alarm! Notably, there was no manufacturer’s name on the device – just a “Made in China” sign embossed on the base. I futzed for about 10 minutes.

Eventually, I called the front desk, who promptly offered to send up a maintenance guy to take care of it.  This, of course, was both an insult to my manhood (couldn’t set his alarm!) and an unnecessary intrusion on my privacy. I said, “That’s not necessary, just let me speak to someone who can tell me how to set the time.” I was told they’d call me back in a few minutes.  I went back and tried again, and on further investigation discovered that although the clock appeared to be working (time was displayed and seemed to click by as the minutes passed) none of the alarm set or radio play buttons actually worked.

I called back down to the front desk, “You’d better have someone come up and help me with this!”  Some minutes later, a rather surly maintenance tech came in and proceeded to dismantle the clock.  I watched him (for future reference and idle curiosity) and mentioned that I was surprised they’d design a clock that needs to be dismantled to set the time.  He grunted.

The task seemed so complicated, and he was fumbling so badly, I decided my watching him was not helping, so I went back to my desk and my work.  Ten minutes later he said in broken English, “Battery dead – I need replace.”  The idea that a clock that was plugged into the wall socket should need a battery to run was foreign to me. Yes, battery back-up is good – but to depend on the battery to work? After all, this was not a Boeing Dreamliner!

He left and returned some minutes later. Surprisingly, replacing the battery required a screwdriver – another masterpiece of engineering design! Another 10 minutes of fumbling passed – and I don’t mean this maintenance guy was incompetent – the process was extremely fiddley!  With the new batteries and the machine reassembled – no luck! He apologized (sort of) and left for another 10 minutes to come back with a new alarm-radio in a box. Another 10 minutes of fiddling and the thing worked.  (I hope, having not yet experienced the morning wake-up signal!)

The Cost of Poor Design

I know something about the hospitality business, having done a lot of consulting in that industry.  I was staying at a corporate rate, courtesy of my client, so the margin was pretty thin.  The engineer probably spent 30 minutes working on my alarm – a good chunk of the margin eaten up. In my semi-retirement, I don’t let things like this get to me (too badly!) but a younger, angrier soul might have taken it out on the hotel, and never returned.  (There are 3 similar chains within walking distance of this property).

Who designed this product?  Who sold it to the chain? Who bought it for the chain?  Did anyone ask any basic usability questions? Did anyone test the alarm?

 

Bloggers – How Can You Drive Up the Value of Comments and Questions?


New Yorker Blog CartoonI could not resist the cartoon above when I saw it in last week’s New Yorker magazine!  Comments are tricky beasts!  I get literally hundreds for every post – unfortunately, most of them are pure spam!  Thanks to WordPress and it’s highly effective akismet spam filtering capability, these are virtually all caught for me with minimal intervention.  It’s the real comments – or lack thereof – that take me to the analysts couch!

Keep the Emails Coming!

I get lots of Email about my blog posts.  This is great – some are about requests for consulting or speaking.  Others really are comments or questions about a specific post.  I’m happy to answer these, but I WISH they were submitted as actual comments on the post, so we can all see, and if we wish to, participate in the discussion.  Occasionally, I get so inspired by the comment, that I’ll create a new post based upon the Email I received and the response I created.  This always seems to me to be a clumsy way of bringing an offline thought back into the mainstream, but it works.

So, yes – please keep the emails coming – but don’t be shy about inline commenting!

The LinkedIn and Facebook Effect

Another tricky proposition is that I choose to have my posts appear on LinkedIn, FaceBook and Twitter.  When the post relates directly to one of the LinkedIn Groups in which I’m active, I will actually link to it from within a post on the group page.  This is great – it expands the reach of the post.  The downside is that my Twitter and LinkedIn connections and groups are vociferous and knowledgeable commentators.  My FaceBook friends are often active commentators, even if not so knowledgeable in my topic areas!  So much of the comment traffic happens outside my blog – uncaptured for posterity!

I’m not sure what to do about this.  I’m reasonably happy to live with the situation (as I have for the last 6 years or so.)  But when I saw the New Yorker cartoon, it prompted me to write a short post – and see if I get any comments!

Cartoon courtesy of New Yorker Magazine

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Driving Business-IT Convergence – The Evolving Role of the Business Relationship Manager (Part 2 of 2)


cloudIn Part 1 of this 2-part series I defined the BRM role – with the caveat that it is by no means standardized.  In fact, as far as IT Service Management standards such as ITIL® and ISO/IEC 20000 are formalizing the existence of the Business Relationship Manager (BRM) role and corresponding process as a new best practice, they are selling the role short in terms of its potential strategic impact to business.  I went on to describe the typical BRM in terms of their purposes, goals, responsibilities and accountabilities.  To the title of this post, I introduced the shift from business-IT Alignment to Convergence and why this is so important as every aspect of business strategy and operations is increasingly dependent upon information and IT.   Today, the BRM operates at the leading edge of the convergence movement – a movement being accelerated by the ‘consumerization of IT‘, digitization of everything, and by the “Internet of Things.”

In part 2 of this 2-part series, I’d like to discuss needed BRM competencies, how the BRM role changes over time with increasing maturity (of both the BRM and her business partner) and how the way that the BRM engages with the business partner shifts the nature of the relationship from one of order taker to that of strategic partner.

Typical Competencies Required of the BRM

Drives Value Realization

This might be the most important competency for a BRM.  It includes knowing how to surface, clarify and promote the best value-delivering opportunities for IT investments and assets, and how to ensure that these actually deliver on their promised value – delivered in ways that are felt and seen.  This requires skills in Program Management (with implied Project Management skills), Portfolio Management, influence, persuasion, communication, finance and organizational change.

Understands Business Environment

Driving value realization also requires a great understanding of the business, its ecosystem and its competitive landscape.  Successful BRMs have a keen sense of the top strategic business and IT issues – both short and long term, and how these issues relate to initiatives in their industry.  In short, they understand the “business of the business.”  They are viewed by business leaders as a proactive partner in finding the right solutions to business needs and not as a mere “order takers” for IT services.

Aligns IT with the Business

First, let me say that some readers will fume at the subheading.  “IT and the Business are one and the same!” they shout.  While this may reflect a laudable perspective (and one that will gradually materialize as IT-business convergence takes place) it is rarely, if ever, the case today.  Unless your business is information technology, then “business” is where profits are generated, and IT organizations work in support of that.

With that digression out of the way, alignment can be a tricky concept, and in some respects sounds inconsistent with my argument for business-IT convergence.  But alignment represents the necessary table stakes – business leaders and IT leaders need to be ‘on the same page’ in terms of mission, vision, values and goals for both IT and the business – and how these relate to each other.  Mismatches in any of these can spell disaster to the ability to build and sustain value-producing business-IT relationships, let alone converge business and IT capabilities.

Successful BRMs work closely with business leaders to predict demand for IT services and to manage that demand.  They take the lead in highlighting competing objectives.  They are effective at managing the flow of demand through negotiations and seek to iron out demand/supply disconnects between IT and business leaders.  Most important, they constantly seek ways to foster convergence – empowering business leaders – teaching them to fish, as it were, rather than always fish for them!

Manages Relationships

Any role with the word “relationship” in the title has to imply a high level of competence at creating, sustaining and developing strong relationships among stakeholders – especially between business units and the IT groups that support them.  Relationship skills do not come naturally, and are not easily developed in some people.  Effective BRMs are able to build and maintain relationships with senior IT and business leaders.  They are seen as a value-added participant in strategic business-level discussions (i.e., worthy of a “seat at the table”).  Successful BRMs are not shy in speaking up when the demand for IT services outpaces supply ability or capacity.

Manages Organizational Change

Another tough set of skills and behaviors to master!  This requires deep understanding of the organizational levers for making change (people, process, and technology) and how IT and business strategies translate into practical plans of action for change.

The successful facilitator of change engages in discussion with IT and business leaders on the intended and unintended consequences of change, and is willing to confront senior executive sponsors if they are not “walking the talk” and proactively leading the change themselves.  They understand the total cost – both technical and human – of end-to-end implementation.  They can surface the hidden costs and potential obstacles that could derail the change.

They have the ability to identify key stakeholders at the outset of a project, to assign decision-making roles, and ultimately hold leaders accountable for results.  They think and act in terms of outcomes, not deliverables.

Manages Projects and Programs

Successful BRMs typically have several years of project and, ideally, program management experience under their belts.  They have demonstrated competency in project management fundamentals and in the complexities of program management. They demonstrate the ability to get things done through others, even though they may lack ultimate authority.

Effective Communication

Successful BRMs are recognized for their ability to listen, speak, write and communicate clearly and effectively. They demonstrate the ability to negotiate win-win, or at least buy-in, in situations where there are opposing viewpoints.  They are effective at influencing those that they hold no real power over.  They have the ability to recognize and surface disconnects between IT and business leaders and are able to resolve problems through difficult confrontations.

Financial Savvy

Successful BRMs have good knowledge of finance and accounting – they know their ROIs from their NPVs and know how to build a business case that is compelling.  They understand Portfolio Management and have at least basic knowledge of Options theory.  They understand the financial drivers of the business and the drivers of the industry within which the company operates.

The BRM Maturity Journey

BRM Maturity - The Merlyn Group

The graphic above shows how the quality of the Business Partner experience grows and the BRMs maturity increases.

Ad Hoc Relationship

At the lowest maturity level, the BRM role has typically not been formalized.  As such it is being handled in an ad hoc way – the ‘squeaky wheel’ Business Partner gets the most attention.  Or, in some cases, the least demanding Business Partner, regardless of their potential to use IT for high value purposes get the most attention.

Order Taker Relationship

I see this most frequently. Typically, IT supply has been badly broken and the business-IT relationship is hostile, so the BRM role is introduced to “patch things up!”  The BRM, in her ignorance, believes the best way to improve the relationship is to say “yes” to any and all business demands.  This is nearly always a losing proposition.  IT can’t meet the demand, and if they did, there’s little to no business value to be gained.

Advisor

This is a more constructive and productive relationship, where the Business Partner sees the BRM as an advisor.  By this time, there has usually been some formalization of the BRM role and its rules of engagement.  There’s also been some level of training for the BRM – or at least some thought put into the selection of people for the role.

Strategic Partner

The ‘Holy Grail’ of BRM implementations.  This should be the clear ambition – one that is understood and shared by the BRM and her Business Partner – with the recognition that you aren’t a Strategic Partner because you say you are, or because you want to be.  You reach that elevated position because you’ve earned it – and because your Business Partner sees you that way.

IT Matures as the BRM Role Matures

At the risk of pointing out the obvious, the BRM role does not act in isolation.  It is inextricably linked to IT supply.  If IT supply is broken, the BRM role will be limited, and might not even make it to Order Taker.  This, from my experience, is a common situation.  Things are bad, so the BRM role is introduced.  Unless supply improves, the BRM is doomed to failure – and may actually make things worse.  Promises are made and expectations set that cannot be kept.  On top of lousy supply, the BRM is seen by the business partner as ‘overhead’ – yet more evidence that the IT team is clueless, always adding cost without demonstrating value!

To reach the Holy Grail of Strategic Partner, IT supply has to be excellent – both with steady state services (networks, email, help desk, etc.) and with solution delivery (projects and programs).  The “strategic” BRM needs IT supply to work flawlessly.  IT supply needs the BRM to suppress low value demand while stimulating demand that delivers real business value.  That way, everyone is happy and a virtuous cycle is sustained.

Image courtesy of TradeArabia

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